Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Dread Knights are proficient with all armors and shields as well as all simple and martial weapons, war maces and bastard swords.

Invocation Points/Day: Invocation Points are the fuel that a Dread Knight's powers run on. A least invocation costs one point, a lesser invocation costs two and a greater
invocation costs three. If a Dread Knight has no invocation points, he cannot use any of his invocations or any powers that drain them. A Dread Knight regains all lost invocation points at the end of the day; however, the Dread Knight has one final way to restore invocation points: he may convert his constitution into invocation points, gaining two invocation points per Con point burned.

Invocations Known: The Dread Knight selects his invocations from the same list as the Warlock Any invocations that alter Eldritch Blasts apply to a Dread Knights Hellfire Smite as well.

Bewitching Blast (4): Will save or confused for one round. (eldritch essence)

Eldritch Cone (5): Blast takes shape of a cone. (blast shape)

Enervating Shadow (5): Gain total concealment in dark areas and impose a Strength penalty on adjacent living creatures.

Warlock's Call (5): Use sending as the spell, but risk damage from the recipient.

Dark

Utterdark blast(5):target must make a fortitude save or gain 2 negative levels.(essence invocation)

Dark Discorporation: Become a swarm of batlike shadows, gaining many benefi ts of the swarm subtype.(invocation)

Dark Foresight: Use foresight as the spell, and communicate telepathically with a close target of the effect.(invocation)

Path of Shadow: Use shadow walk as the spell and speed up natural healing.(invocation)

Retributive Invisibility: Use greater invisibility as the spell (self only) that deals damage in a burst if dispelled.(invocation)

Word of Changing: Use baleful polymorph as the spell, but the effect could become permanent(invocation)

Claws of the Fiend (Ex): At 1st level a Dread Knight's hands morph into fiendish claws, granting him two 1d6 damage claw attacks. This ability does not restrict his ability to wear items in the hands and rings magic item slots.

Hellfire Smite (Su): At 3rd level, the Dread Knight gains the ability to smite his foes with eldritch hellfire once per round causing the next blow dealt with his claws to deal +1d6 damage. A Dread Knight can use this ability for free a number of times per day equal to his Charisma modifier +1, after which it drains one invocation point per use. The extra damage dealt with this blow increases every two levels after 3rd.

Hellfire Commander (Su): At 4th level, the Dread Knight gains the ability to command fiends through shear willpower, this works exactly like the cleric ability Rebuke/Command undead except that it effects Evil Outsiders instead of undead. A Dread Knight's effective cleric level is equal to his Dread Knight level -3. Using this ability costs one invocation point per 4 Hit Dice of the strongest fiend that the Dread Knight is attempting to Rebuke/Command.

Hellfire Aura(Su): At 8th level, the Dread Knight gains the ability to surround himself with a aura of hellfire dealing 2d6 damage per round to all enemies within 10 ft., at 16th level this aura intensifies dealing 4d6 damage instead of 2d6. This ability drains 1 Invocation point every round it is active.

True Fiend (Su): At 20th level, the Dread Knight undergoes or foul transformation, this transformation requires a week-long ritual that, once completed, transforms the Dread Knight into a Half-Fiend, gaining all the attributes of one except the level adjustment and making the Dread Knight immortal and removing any age-based ability score modifiers. However, this transformation comes at a grave price: once completed the Dread Knight may never be raised again as his soul is traded to a Fiendish Lord to complete the bargain. Because of this, some Dread Knights never undertake the ritual.

A Dread Knight who ever commits a good act without personal gain immediately loses all supernatural class features of the Dread Knight until he receives a atonement spell sealed with the blood of a innocent, however, a Dread Knights alignment can never become good no matter what, for once a Dread Knight always a Dread Knight.

Religion: No god not even an evil one would allow a Dread Knight to worship them and only the foulest of fiendish lords accept them.

Other Classes: No-one is comfortable in the presence of a Dread Knight even when they seem to be on their side, for as the say gos "Being on your side is just a step away from stabbing you in the back". Dread Knight for their part consider any "ally" to be merely disposable tools.

Combat: A Dread Knight belongs on the front lines not only because his abilities are focused on melee, but also because no one in their right minds would let him stand behind them.

Advancement: Multi-class? There is no other class that offers the Dread Knights sheer melee ability or awesome defensive power, in short Dread Knights do not multi-class.

Characters with ranks in Knowledge (History) can research Dread Knights to learn more about them. When a character makes a skill check, read or paraphrase the following, including information from lower DCs.

Dread Knight Lore

DC

Result

5

Dread Knights are warriors who have gained dark powers through a fell pact.

10

Dread Knights can smite their foes with eldritch energy and shield themselves with hellfire.

15

Dread Knights can command fiends with a thought and slowly transform into fiends themselves.

20

At this level the PC discovers the names and locations of prominent Dread Knight NPCs in the game.